Baidu is shaking things up in the AI world with the introduction of two new models that promise to give Western competitors a run for their money. They’ve rolled out the Ernie X1 model, which they claim matches the performance of Deepseek-R1 but at just half the price. While Baidu hasn’t yet shared detailed benchmarks or technical specs to support this claim, it’s an exciting development for those of us keeping an eye on AI advancements.
In addition to the Ernie X1, Baidu has unveiled Ernie 4.5, a versatile multimodal base model. This model is designed to handle videos, photos, and text with ease, showing impressive improvements in reducing hallucinations, tackling complex reasoning, and even coding. Preliminary benchmarks suggest that Ernie 4.5 outperforms OpenAI’s GPT-4o and holds its own against GPT-4.5. When it comes to pricing, Baidu is offering Ernie 4.5 through its Qianfan cloud platform at $0.55 per million input tokens and $2.20 for output. That’s a significant drop compared to GPT-4.5’s $75 per million input tokens and $150 for output.
For those looking for even more cost-effective options, Ernie X1 is available at $0.28 per million input tokens and $1.10 for output, roughly half the API cost of Deepseek-R1. This is quite appealing, especially considering Deepseek’s model is also open source. Baidu isn’t just focusing on enterprise solutions; they’re also offering free access to their AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, for individual users. They’re planning to integrate both models into their existing services, such as Baidu Search and the Wenxiaoyan app.
Back in February, Baidu’s CEO Robin Li announced a pivot towards open-sourcing the Ernie 4.5 series by June 30. This is a significant shift from his previous preference for closed models, as he believes open source will help spread the technology much faster. While there are no open-source plans for X1 just yet, it seems likely given that Deepseek-R1, used in some of Baidu’s products, is already open source.
This move puts pressure on Western AI companies, which have maintained higher pricing despite similar capabilities. It all started with the ‘Deepseek moment’ in January 2025, when Deepseek demonstrated it could match the performance of Western AI labs with fewer resources. Western firms like Anthropic and OpenAI have since urged the US government to regulate Chinese AI development, citing national security and political concerns. However, the potential impact of open-source Chinese models on their commercial API offerings is undeniable.
As a leading search provider in China, Baidu has quickly positioned itself in the AI race. They launched Ernie Bot as the country’s first ChatGPT alternative in 2023, attracting 70 million users within just three months. These latest developments highlight Baidu’s commitment to accelerating its AI advancements, while its domestic competitor, Deepseek, gains international recognition.
